Station owners also look for the widest audience they can get. So some formats, although drawing a good audience, aren’t popular enough and don’t make enough money. This isn’t to say they don’t make a profit, it just isn’t what the owners want. As a result, today many cities in the United States don’t have a station playing an “oldies” sound, a jazz station or a classical music station. People forget that the airwaves are really owned by the people and they are leased to private entrepreneurs. When broadcast licenses were originally granted by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) it was understood that stations would broadcast in the “public interest, convenience and necessity.” Well, that thought is long gone. Thankfully many public stations have stepped in to fill the void because they don’t have to be commercially viable, although they do have to survive financially. Any many do quite well broadcasting classical music, talk and jazz. But this isn’t the case in other cities which have lost out altogether or today have substandard stations and signals. Again using San Diego as an example, there is no “nostalgia” format (hits from the 40’s – 70’s), and the only classical station is an AM daytimer, meaning the signal is very limited and the quality is awful.
Forgetting the Baby Boomers
The old advertiser axiom is to reach the 18-49 age demographic. That’s the desired target for all a lot products from beer, soft drinks, trendy clothes, rock concerts, cars, etc. It means that broadcasters fall all over themselves trying to provide the right music environment so that kids from this coveted age group will listen. And truthfully that is where the big bucks are to be sure. But what about the forgotten Baby Boomers? This is the largest demographic group in the nation’s history. They are interested in hearing popular music (nostalgia hits), classical, jazz, news, and talk radio, which we haven’t discussed before. Thankfully there is plenty of the latter in almost every market. Somehow station owners haven’t figured out how to get rid of the “talk jocks” or they would. And although some of this is syndicated, i.e. Rush Limbaugh, much is still locally-based. But aside from this the Baby Boomers will probably have to turn to other sources to hear the music they want. Satellite radio, internet radio, and cable radio do in fact provide a limited alternative but it isn’t pervasive as regular radio is. And it is clearly not as convenient.